112167

Academic Work

Julius Caesar Crossing the Rubicon 1891

Oil on canvas, 31.5 x 39.5 cm (12 ⅜  x 15 ½ in.)

Inscribed lower left: László. F. 

Inscribed verso: Paris 891 IV. László...

Private Collection

De László painted this picture during his two terms studying at the Académie Julian in Paris, October 1890 to late spring 1891. His professors at the school were the figure and portrait painter, Jules Joseph Lefebvre (1836-1911) and Jean-Joseph Benjamin Constant (1845-1902), specialist in orientalist subjects.

In his reminiscences, the artist recalled: “The rules in force at Julien’s were most ingenious. For instance, every Monday morning each class had a new model for whom there were only fifty or sixty students. To avoid arguments about places, every Saturday the master gave out a subject for a composition to paint that afternoon or on Sunday morning – there was scarcely any time to read up the subject, or the opportunity to make preliminary sketches at home...The painter of number one had the right to choose his place first...Many of those sketches became famous. I remember that among the subjects we had to paint were ‘Julius Caesar crossing the Rubicon’ and ‘L’Abandonnée’ – a poor woman with a baby in her arms.”^[1]

Other works he completed during his time at the school include: An Italian Girl in her National Costume [6518] and Young Man wearing a Fez [111291]. For more information about his time at the Académie Julian, see [6518].

PROVENANCE:

Jakab Frim,^[2] 1907;

Nagyházi Galéria, Budapest, 2018

EXHIBITED:

•National Szalon, Budapest, Exhibition of Works by László Fülöp, April 1907, no. 68

LITERATURE:

•Rutter, Owen, Portrait of a Painter, London, 1939, pp. 66-67

BS 2018